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Ontario's elementary teachers have accepted a four-year, $700 million offer from the province – and this time, they made their deadline.

The union made the announcement at a 3 p.m. press conference this afternoon from its headquarters in downtown Toronto.

The offer, made Tuesday by the education ministry, provides a 10.4 per cent wage increase over four years, 40 additional minutes of preparation time, creates more than 500 new positions and also does not make staff meetings mandatory, but rather states that teachers "are expected" to attend.

Teachers would also get two professional development days to write report cards.

Earlier today, Premier Dalton McGuinty emphasized that he had "nothing but good will for Ontario teachers."

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"That's a fair offer, that's a reasonable offer given our circumstances," the premier said of the contract proposal.

Speaking to reporters after an event at Women's College Hospital, McGuinty said he'd "like to keep moving" to improve the province's education system.

"We've worked long and hard and well with Ontario teachers. We've made remarkable progress together. We have smaller classes, higher test scores, higher graduation rates. There's never been more enthusiasm for – and confidence in – our public education system than right now," he said.

"My invitation to teachers is let's keep working together and doing the good things that we've been doing together."

Union president David Clegg was critical of Education Minister Kathleen Wynne after she made details of the offer public on Tuesday, saying it was unfair and offensive, and even accused her of "poisoning the environment."

Clegg had given boards until tomorrow to present firm offers to union locals or face strike votes and job action in March and he said yesterday his deadline still stands.

A strike would affect 800,000 students around the province.

Wynne has said the new offer was extremely difficult for the government to make given the current economic meltdown.

She came under more fire today in an open letter from Catherine Swift, who heads the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, who said the province can't afford the raises offered to teachers.

All other teachers in the province have deals providing a 12.55 per cent increase over the next four years.

Swift said a study by her organization shows that public sector education workers in the province "receive on average 9 per cent more in annual salary and benefits" than those in similar positions in the private sector.

"In terms of the offer, we believe it is still prohibitively generous," Swift wrote. "A $700-million deal, giving sizable increases in both salary and benefits to elementary teachers, is a hard pill to swallow for Ontario's taxpayers, both businesses and residents, especially at a time of growing economic instability and rising unemployment. . . Taking such extraordinary measures to satisfy unreasonable union demands sets your government on the treacherous path of maintaining the same level of `generosity' when other public contracts come up for renewal."

Without a deal by 4 p.m. today, the province said it would provide school boards with enough money for a 2 per cent raise each year for two years.

The Ontario Public School Boards' Association has already accepted the offer.

The Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario, with 73,000 members, is the largest teacher union in the country.

It has been seeking to "close the gap" in funding between elementary and secondary education, which is less than $500 per student, as well as a doubling of preparation time and more specialist teachers and guidance counsellors, who are basically non-existent at the elementary level.

Clegg had criticized Wynne for a "unilateral attempt to impose a settlement" with an arbitrary deadline and accused her of "poisoning the environment."

Wynne said she was not willing to get into a public spat with the union.

"Essentially we are all on the same side and we want what's best for kids," she said before meeting with the union's executive last night.

The elementary federation has stood firm in its call for better working conditions since talks began a year ago at a new "discussion table" created by the province, where teachers' unions now hammer out the financial part of their contracts and leave the other details to be settled with local school boards.

As other provincial teachers' unions agreed, one by one, to the province's 12 per cent raise over four years, the elementary teachers left talks in May. Clegg said they would not return until Wynne promised to close the funding gap. The union and public school boards failed to reach a deal by a Nov. 30th deadline, and then again by an extended deadline of Dec. 5th.

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